BEIJING (Reuters) - The 2017 election for Hong Kong's chief executive is the "ardent expectation" of the Chinese territory's people and the only way for it to make progress on achieving democracy, a top China newspaper said on Saturday.

China has ruled the former British colony since 1997 through a "one country, two systems" formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.